Marine Leadership

Know your Students and look out for their welfare

Learn and remember all you can about your students. How many students come from a broken home and have no real role models in their lives? How about the kid who is the target for bullies at school or is very shy? How are they doing in school and are they making good grades? If you know your students, you will know what they need to learn and when they are not behaving normally. Giving personalized and special attention to students goes a long way in shaping their lives and showing them that they are more than just a monthly fee.

Supportive counseling of your students is another important factor for the leader. Students often get lost in the shuffle and rarely receive real feedback from the instructors. Students need to receive periodic counseling so they know where they stand on their next promotion, and where their strengths and their weaknesses are. Set goals for them. Give them options for correcting their deficiencies, start them on a program toward improvement, and be supportive of their efforts. Give them updates as they progress, praising them when they do well and quickly correct them when they stray.

Let your students know what is going on in the dojang, what events are on the horizon, and what goals you have set for the dojang. Let them know they are part of the dojang and show them how they can help in achieving those goals. Make them feel like a contributing part of the dojang's success and future.